Submission #7865: adelikat's NES Back to the Future in 17:08.42

When I was a child, a friend of mine owned this game and it looked interesting since the movie was awesome. He let me borrow it (a real friend would have spared me from this). It didn't take long for me to hate this game. But I was a nerd, and I insisted on a beating the game. For a few weeks there, I would play this, and get angry and make steady progress only to find there is no fun factor at any point in this frustrating and repetitive game. One day I finally did it, I beat the last stage. I pulled the game out of my NES and I threw it across the room, said some not nice words and I never played the game again. I don't know if I gave the game back to my friend, it's not like he was asking for it back. If I hadn't of had the misfortune of renting Dr. Jekyl and Mr. Hyde, this would have been the worst game I ever played.

All these years later, for some reason, I decided to torture myself again with this horrible game with a TAS. Nostalgia is just that powerful.

The fastest movie I found was a run by Supper found here. Other than a frame here and there, mostly due to emulation differences (and a frame saved because .fcm movies have a soft reset on the first frame) the improvements came from a better strategy in the Cafe and ending input sooner.

1-1

Why is the music from the title screen still playing? Anyway, the stategy here is to get the skate board as soon as possible. As long as you get the bowling ball when it first appears (you do not even need to get it quickly), the stakeboard will spawn in the same spot.

You may notice some crazy glitching, that's from presing L+R or U+D. I made it an artificial goal in these stages to get all clocks and kill no bees. It isn't because I want to save bees or anything, just that they are hardest enemy in the game (you know, like the movie) so it is an attempt to artificially make these levels interesting. Note that Supper hit on the same strategy in his movie.

1-2 through 1-4

These may look familiar, and why is that music still playing?? Yeah, the only speed strat is to not get hit. I get all the clocks and kill no bees. Also, I found a frame you can get hit at the end of the level and it makes the "getting hit" sound effect but continues to the next level (doesn't cost or save time), so that's something I guess.

The Cafe

THANK GOD that music stopped! And it was replaced with...silence..well, better than that short repetitive music.

You need to hit 50 enemies (seriously, 50! Try this in real time, it's hard, you get no retries, and there is no fun factor). The game doesn't tell you that you won, you just lose after 50 and it shows that you went to the next level. Great game.

This is the only level in the game where there is something interesting to do speed-wise. I found a pattern where I can get the top enemy to be the one that "gets you". Aside from that it is to make sure to plan the enemy to not be the last one, you want to be hitting enemies while one is walking to you. Also, only 3 enemies can be on the screen at once, so that requires you to be fast, sometimes. Also, hit the waitress as soon as possible, she counts towards the total enemies count. All she does is deliver you a milk shake...But you are behind the bar that has them..and you clearly don't need it, you are flinging them all over the place. Great game.

2-1 through 2-4

Oh god the music is back! But at least these are COMPLETELY NEW levels! They have different colors, so they must be different. Yeah, it is just the auto-scrolling levels from before, but with more enemies. Same strategy as before, nothing interesting to talk about.

The Classroom

At least the music stopped gain...for silence...again. E=mc2, clever. I'll spare the rant on how little this scene makes toward the movie. You have to get 99 hearts (score of 50, each one counts as half). Again the game doesn't tell you, you have to lose. By now you can guess 50 at least. Again no fun factor. Worse yet, nothing interesting in terms of speed strats. You can get Lorraine to do different patterns but it doesn't affect speed. The rate of hearts is always the game, and the amount of time she spend walking after you miss one is the same regardless of her position.

3-1 through 3-4

Are you surprised? Yeah, it's the same levels AGAIN with different colors. And that music. What a great game.

The dance

Anyone playing those guitar hero games can throw them away, because you got NES Back to the Future to put them to shame. Did you know guitars are giant and you play them like an upright base? Did you know that to play a sharp, you raise the guitar in the air, and to play a flat you play lower it to the ground? Well, now you know.

Nothing interesting speedwise, the notes come out at a fixed speed, just collect them all.

4-1 through 4-4

I'm crying at this point. That music. Same as before, a few more enemies, same strategy.

The DeLorean

At least we can get a break from that musi....OH GOD NO IT IS STILL PLAYING.

The last level, you would think it would be interesting but no. You just get to 88mph and then DODGE lightening, so that you can get to the end, and get struck by lightning while going 88, makes a lot of sense. Great Game.

Speed wise not much here, just hold up, and then dodge lightning. You can end input 1 frame before crossing the finish without slowing down. Cool.

Also, did you think you were going to get a nice ending? Did you think the title screen music would stop just because you beat the game?? Hahahaha

$#!@. That. Music.

ThunderAxe31: Apologies accepted. But regarding the submission itself, I've yet to judge it.

ThunderAxe31: I've decided to pardon this submission. Hopefully this doesn't generate a time paradox where licensed games are worse than bootlegs. Accepting.

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